Supporting Technology with Technology.: Enable 24 bit color in RDP for XP or 2003 Server

Supporting Technology with Technology.: Enable 24 bit color in RDP for XP or 2003 Server








The inability to connect to an XP or windows 2003 server computer using RDP with a color depth higher than 16 bits is a default setting on the remote computer. It can be chanegd on the remote server or XP desktop. No reboot is required t osee the results of the change. A goup policy change on the remote computer or in a domain group policy object klink to the domain or an OU can be applied.

making the change to the local policy or to the domain policy will allow connections to with true color 24 bit rdp.

A pre-defined default limit on XP or windows 2003 server limits the color depth of RDP connections to 16 bit maximum. How to configure the "server side" of remote desktop to accept connections at 24-bit true color.

Windows 7, Vista, and server 2008 already allow higher that 24 bit color by default.

dsa.msc in Windows 2008 Server

How to run dsa.msc in windows 2008 server.

Haven been spoiled by having the dsa.msc console to remotely administer active directory users and computers from a member server in a windows 2008 domain, I was stunned to find out that this feature that was readily available in windows 2003 server was not part of the default installation for windows 2008 server.

The image shows the options that should be selected in order to add this feature back into or onto your member servers. It only takes several minutes to add and doesn't require a reboot.

Get outlook web access OWA working without reboot on II6 Exchange 2003

The system service with a process id of 4 on 2003 servers listens on port 80 and 443. I checked this with another 2003 exchange email server to be close to sure of that being correct. It too has the system service, not an IIS service, with process id of 4 listening on 80 and 443.

I changed the port the default web site uses on the problem outlook web acess (OWA) web server to 81, restarted the services. Still couldn't connect with localserver:81 but now telnetting to port 80 worked. Just get a blank line is displayed when telnetting to port 80 (II6) unlike smtp that sends some text. Before the change to 81 for the default web site, the error returned by telnetting to port 80 was "connection refused". Changed the IIS default web site back to 80 saved, restarted the IIS service again and the default page loads and the OWA page also loads. As of now, no reboot of the server is required. Hope the fix holds.

Could try this solution on other servers that have IIS not responding and of course leads to OWA not working. Don't know if the same solution applies to 2008 server with exchange 2007 or 2003 server with exchange 2007 but some varient of the steps might just do the same.

This exchange 2003 server's access via port 80 (default web browser port) was working fine then suddenly IIS and OWA stopped working. I've seen this all too often over the years and ussually meant the server had to be rebooted.


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Disable IE Enhanced Security on 2008 Server

Disable IE Enhanced Security on 2008 Server

Disable IE Enhanced Security on 2008 Server

Well, as with many other things, the method to remove the IE Enhanced Security Configuration from 2008 windows server has moved. It was once easily found in the familiar Add/Remove programs applet through control panel and clicking on windows components would reveal additional options installed by the the OS for specific functions or roles of the server to operate. Now, it's moved to server manager in Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 installs by default with the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security enabled. So if you noticed, the Add/Remove programs in Control Panel is no longer used for adding and removing any Microsoft windows Server operating components. For so many years it was in that location, found through control panel but now it has changed with the new face of Windows Server 2008 so we all need to get used to as we've done for many other changes.

Server Manager is now used for managing Server Components, mainly throught the Roles and Features nodes, but IE Enhanced security is not listed here either. Remove IE Enhanced

Security with Server Manager:

Start -> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager
The root node is highlighted, in the right column, under the Security Information heading, click Configure IE ESC
Disable IE ESC for Administrators and/or Users

Having the enhanced security applied to the browser by default on servers is a nice thing to have. Many of us however do use the browser on the server to find driver updates and other things we need to perform tasks on the server wicthout the extra security nag.

Disable with Script or Registry Edit:

There will be a need somewhere to disable the Enhanced security feature of Windows server 2008 by using a script based method for automation of the process or by manully making the edits in the registry. Disable 2008's enhanced security using a script or a direct manual registry edit is through a registry setting that the GUI modifies. Specifically the IEHardenAdmin and IEHardenUser, so you could use a simple script to modify this setting. Refer to the following TechNet Article for more information.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749170.aspx

Disable IE Enhanced Security on 2008 Server

Disable IE Enhanced Security on 2008 Server

Well, as with many other things, the method to remove the IE Enhanced Security Configuration from 2008 windows server has moved. It was once easily found in the familiar Add/Remove programs applet through control panel and clicking on windows components would reveal additional options installed by the the OS for specific functions or roles of the server to operate. Now, it's moved to server manager in Windows Server 2008.

Having the enhanced security applied to the browser by default on servers is a nice thing to have. Many of us however do use the browser on the server to find driver updates and other things we need to perform tasks.